First Run, Nike Pegasus 37
Ed[itor]’s note: I have another piece started about 2021 goals, some of which include running, but it’s still a draft. Getting this review out in the interim, while the feeling is fresh.
Intro
We’re dealing with a lot this last year. With many races canceled, there is less of a reason to run and workout. There’s also less of an urge to try the latest in running technology as it arrives. I’m excited to eventually try out shoes like the Saucony Endorphin Speed or the new version of my personal favorite, the New Balance Beacon, but why not tighten the shoe budget a bit in the interim? There have been notable deals in the last 3 months that I’ve taken advantage of: the Adidas Boston 9 for $55 and the New Balance Fuelcell TC for $60. And now, one colorway of Nike’s latest Pegasus, the 37, is on sale at $65 while we wait for news on the Pegasus 38, which will be probably released this spring.
I was a huge fan of the Nike Pegasus 36 back in 2019. I put in about 600km on them, the most I’ve ever put in to a shoe, and I kept them around for another 6 months or so for walking. The full-length Zoom had a nice bounce to it. The midsole foam was fine. It felt good on easy days, tempo days, and long runs. The 36 was a solid, “boring” shoe that I could wear any day of the week. So, finding the Pegasus 37 this cheap felt like a deal that shouldn’t be passed.
This shoe is definitely not the 36 I enjoyed.
I’ll skip the photos. They’re available on your favorite search engine. Pics will be added in the future for wear and tear.
Nike’s habit with the Pegasus is to alternate what they switch out each year. The 36 was the 35 with a new upper, so it makes sense that the 37 replaced the midsole. But, the 37 also features a new upper. There goes that consistency.
The Run
I took the shoes out for an easy ~7.5km loop.
First, what I like: even with a 10mm drop, the shoe felt good on a midfoot strike. I know I overpronate a bit, but the stiffer ride and wider toe box played a role in addressing that, at least compared to a softer shoe. The rubber outsole is also largely unchanged from the previous iteration, extending confidence that this shoe will easily go for another 600km if it pleases. After wearing the New Balance 1080v10 for the last year, cornering felt effortless. This shoe will excel as a daily driver, nothing more, nothing less.
“The Internet” raves about React foam. Maybe it’s my size (190cm, ~80kg and a 12.5 size), but I don’t get it. The last pair of Nike shoes with React I tried was the Epic React 2, and while there was a little bit of energy to it, what made React so great was unclear. With the Pegasus 37, it felt the same. Nike went with a bigger stack of React vs their older (EVA?), slimmer foam to deliver a shoe of roughly the same weight (though it is heavier, at 329g/shoe at 12.5). The shoe is comfortable, but it’s not something that gets me excited about faster splits. It didn’t help running in below freezing temps (-2C! Lovely January so far), which is when React falls apart and becomes a brick. They felt nothing like what they felt at the store.
The upper is confusing. It’s thin, similar to the Boston 9, and so is the tongue, but the heel is padded. It’s hard to tell if Nike intended this to be your every day shoe, or an entry level racer.
After hitting about 5k, I had acute pain in the foot and knee, but it is hard to say if it was the shoe specifically, the cold with the shoe, or because I haven’t run in a couple weeks. Or maybe it was from the significantly smaller Zoom Air pocket, which now only lives in the front of the shoe, and leaves significant room for error in your landing. Get lazy, and it’ll hit a weird spot with the air bag that wouldn’t have happened with the full length Zoom unit of last year’s model.
Lastly, there was some heel slippage on the left shoe throughout the run. This seems solveable, so I’ll play with the lacing a bit and see what can be improved.
Outro
When I took the Pegasus 36 out for a first run, that shoe was like a breath of fresh air. This time around, I’m less impressed. That said, I expect this shoe to perform better in the right conditions. See you at the 100km update.